In the field of dry-goods production, an ever-present problem related to humidity exists. The shelf life of any given dry-good is lessened by the absorption of water from adjacent moist materials, such as ice cream as a source of water within an ice cream cone product. This concern is no less than an issue in the production of ice cream products that include dry wafer containers in the common form of cones. Such cones are usually intended to be an edible part of the ice cream product. Ideally, such cones maintain their desirable attributes such as crispiness and flavour. However, the high relative humidity of ice cream detracts from such desirable attributes over time. This is due, in large part, from the migration of moisture from the ice cream into the cone itself. This results in undesirable effects such as reduced crispiness in the cone. Indeed, a soggy cone tends to absorb flavours from its surrounding environment resulting in a taste that may be more like the freezer compartment or cardboard packaging.
In order to overcome the undesirable effects of moisture migrating from a relatively moist ice cream material into a relatively dry cone, the frozen confection industry has provided a coating layer between the cone and ice cream to prevent migration of such moisture. The standard coating layer that has been used by the industry is a chocolate product that is vegetable oil based and thus provides a relatively water-impermeable moisture barrier. In manufacture of the ice cream product, the cone is coated by some form of spray applied to the interior of the cone prior to introduction of the ice cream in order to maintain the crispiness of the cone.
One critical point in contact with the ice cream is the rim of the cone. Even the relatively small area of the rim being exposed to ice cream can result in detrimental moisture increases within the entire wafer cone. For an unlived wafer sprayed in an upright position, the protection of the rim must be done by an over-spray. Commonly, a cardboard tray is currently used to carry the wafers on assembly lines. This cardboard tray serves at the same time to collect any over spray. In addition to significant wastage of the coating itself in terms of cost, such overspray represents potential cleanliness problems in regards to the assembly line as well as waste-disposal concerns related to the soiled cardboard trays.
While the problems elucidated herein are related to ice cream and wafer cones that are used to hold such ice cream, it is equally apparent that any spray coating applied to a dry-good designed to hold a relatively moist food product would incur the same problems. Such other problematic food products may therefore not be limited to frozen ice cream cones, but may include snack items such as filled pie crusts intended to have an improved shelf life in terms of crispiness and flavour.
It is, therefore, desirable to provide a manner and mechanism of coating food items that alleviates problems associated with overspray.